Amsterdam, 26/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU has set itself the deadline of June 2016 to submit a general approach to the ministers on the proposed directive extending the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) to third-country nationals, the Dutch Minister for Justice and Security, Ard van der Steur, announced on Tuesday 26 January.
According to one source, the initial reaction to this proposal presented by the Commission on 19 January was positive, although the ministers did not go into details in their discussions of it. The European Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, also feels that this proposal could apply not only to the crimes of terrorism or cross-border organised crime, but also to “minor offences”, she said, adding that a reflection was to be launched on this matter.
In Strasbourg on 19 January, the European Commission made a proposal, in a proposed directive, to extend the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) to nationals of third countries, which would allow the law enforcement authorities of the member countries to exchange this information between themselves.
The idea, which was first raised by the Commission in January 2015 in the wake of the first attacks on Paris, is to allow these European authorities to verify whether a third-country national has previously been convicted of an offence in a member state, which is currently not possible under the this system of records established in 2012 and on the basis of which some 288,000 requests are made every year between the national services. The Commission is also proposing to allow the authorities to exchange the digital fingerprints of these nationals convicted of a crime in any member state. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)